Who is the Raven?

(Updated November 29, 2007.)

I'm Carl Cravens, and I'm a lot of things.

I'm a regular guy…

I'm a late-thirty-something husband, and father to a seven-year-old boy (who started roleplaying this year!). I'm a software developer by trade. I'm just like a whole lot of other computer and gaming geeks out there, except that I married a gal I met online in 1986, on a computer bulletin board devoted to play-by-email RPGs… the great-grandfather of the internet-based phoenyx.net. We've been happily married for over fifteen years.

I've been roleplaying since the seventh grade… over two-thirds of my life. My play style is rules-light, character-driven, and story-oriented, but I'm constantly exploring what roleplaying is and means to me. That's a lot of what my blog is about… exploring roleplaying.

I don't like the highly Narrativistic approach that takes the player out of the character's head and makes him more of a storyteller than anything else. I think of roleplaying in terms of creating a story, but the player's part is primarily to experience their character's story, not tell it.

I primarily play my own concoction of Fudge. Some of my discussion will be about Fudge, how it does or doesn't work for me, and where I'm going rules-wise.

…and would-be game writer…

I've only got a couple minor publishing credits with Grey Ghost Games, and a few articles on RPGNet and Fudge Factor magazine. I keep trying to write more… editing Fudge Factor got in the way for quite awhile, and I've been having trouble establishing a writing habit again. (UPDATE: And still am… but now I'm having a problem establishing a habit of gaming again.)

• "[[http://www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=ideafactory|The Idea Factory]]", a short-lived series of columns about idea generation on RPG.net.

• "The Gramarye," a magic system for the roleplaying game
• Fudge, published in A Magical Medley and now available online (link above).

• "Just Fudge It", an article about playing with minimal rules, published in [[http://www.fudgerpg.com/products.html|Fudge RPG, 10th Anniversary Edition]].

• "[[http://www.fudgefactor.org/2004/04/department-13.html|Department 13]]," a mini-setting based loosely on a mash-up of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and SciFi Channel's Invisible Man.

…who runs too many projects…

• I'm the owner of the [[http://fudge.phoenyx.net/guide/bin/view/Guide/FudgeList|Fudge List]], which is dedicated to the Fudge Roleplaying Game.

• I'm the organizer of the Wichita_Roleplayers, a face-to-face roleplaying club based around a Yahoo Group message board. Trying to get the local scene fired up is more of a chore than I expected it to be. (UPDATE: Will always be a chore. I'm about ready to give up.)

• I'm co-owner of The Phoenyx, which is a free discussion forum server for the play-by-messaging roleplaying community. (The Phoenyx is in transition at the moment, so it's kind of quiet, but we're close to a major rebirth.) (UPDATE: Very close… we

…and still tries to find time to game.

I'm a gamer who hasn't gotten to game much in the past few years because of getting a bachelor's degree, having a kid, getting a second bachelors degree, and having trouble putting together a group of people. I was gaming regularly for awhile, but my gaming group fell apart in December of 2007 and somehow all of 2007 has slipped by with my playing a couple one-shot games. This paragraph used to start with, "I'm a dedicated gamer," but I realized I must not be all that dedicated when there wasn't really anything standing in the way of gaming this year except petty excuses. 2008 will have to be different.